Grain and Feed Storage Options

By Jacob Prater

Storing and handling grain can be important on any farm and for a variety of reasons as well as for longer and shorter time periods. Feeding animals often requires having extra feed on hand when not using a feed source like grazing. Whether your client has dozens of animals or hundreds to thousands, they are likely to store feed.

Similarly, although for other reasons, if your client grows grain crops, they might be interested in storing some of their crop as well. The reasons for storing commodity grains vary from playing the market by holding grain until prices rise, to drying grain and facilitating loading and unloading. If your client is interested in storing grain, a variety of options are available, depending on the period of storage and how often and why they might use that storage.

Feed Storage

Let’s start by thinking about feed storage, as this is probably the most common storage of this bunch. Important things to consider when storing feed are keeping it dry, keeping pests out, and being able to easily dispense (unload) it. This can be done in a dedicated, single-purpose structure such as a feed bin that’s used year-round.

However, if a farmer only uses the feed storage for part of the year, for feeding out pigs or steers, for instance, then he might consider a different option, such as a pest-tight multipurpose building, in which the feed is stored on a concrete slab. The nice thing about a storage structure in which you store the feed on the concrete is that other than the time that you are storing feed there, the structure can be used for other purposes.

Although a feed bin only has a single purpose, it is more efficient for loading and unloading, whereas storing feed on a concrete slab in a building requires more time and effort to load and unload.

***Grain bins provide effective long-term***
***storage.*** Photo courtesy of Chief Agri

Grain Storage

If a farmer can’t wait for his grain to dry to the necessary low moisture content in the field, then he may need to dry the grain while in storage (or take a price cut at the elevator). If he intends to dry the grain in storage, then he will need a structure that will provide ventilation — and probably heat, as well — for drying.

It used to be more common to see a small grain bin or two on farms in Iowa when I lived there some 20 years ago, and I am sure there are still some left, but these are potentially expensive structures to build. They are useful both for drying and storing grain. Beyond drying grain and storing it to get a better price on the market, a grain bin can facilitate staging loads to leave the farm while harvest is underway using augers for loading and unloading grain.

Of course, grain bins are convenient, but they are an expensive investment. It is becoming increasingly common, even to the point of being the norm, for grain elevators to have on-ground (concrete) grain storage. At most elevators, these are typically large piles of corn with a low wall concrete around them, either covered or uncovered.

Just as overflow grain can be stored on the ground at an elevator, the same can be done on a farm as well in pest-tight building. An opening can even be created in the building’s roof for an auger to facilitate the grain transfer. The disadvantage is that unloading is a bit more difficult than with a bin and will likely involve some skid steer use. The advantage to storing grain on a slab in a building is that the building can have multipurpose function, just like the feed storage option.

The decision about what to use and construct comes down to cost and farm needs, with the most versatile and low-cost option likely being the building on a slab. This option can even be a fabric roof to lower the cost even further if needed. The advantages are the multipurpose nature of these buildings with the major downsides coming in loading and unloading, as well as them not being as effective for drying grain.

Other considerations for grain storage and handling include easy cleanout and unloading to avoid the danger of falling into or getting trapped in a grain bin and risking suffocation from grain shifting unpredictably.

Benefits of a Grain Bin

Having a grain bin on a farm has a number of advantages.

• Climate Control

• Protection

• Preservation

Grain bins provide a controlled environment, protecting grain from moisture, pests, and spoilage for more effective long-term storage.

• Cost Efficiency

Owning a grain bin reduces the need to rent commercial storage space, saving money over the long-term. Having storage on the farm reduces time and transportation costs needed to haul grain to an offsite grain storage facility. Harvesting can be done faster by having a place to store grain immediately rather than making trips to an offsite storage facility. In addition, a grain bin allows owners to store grain so they can wait until market prices reach the desired level before selling. Finally, after the fixed initial investment to build a grain bin, it can last for decades, spreading the cost out over many years, and will create a more predictable cost of ownership per year. Over those same decades, however, the cost of offsite rental, transportation, and other expenses will increase with inflation, creating a growing expense and less predictable cost per year.